Cartons of canned beverages are typically stocked in grocery stores on horizontal shelves in lay flat fashion, sometimes in stacks. As consumers remove cartons, remaining cartons must be moved forward by hand, either by stock workers or the consumer attempting to purchase the product. The standard method of stocking relatively heavy cartons is ergonomically unsatisfactory for the consumer (as well as for the stocker), who must bend, pull and lift the carton before placing it into his or her cart. The stock worker must shove the cartons from the aisle side of the store shelf toward the rear until the shelf is fully stocked. Also, the soft drink aisle of grocery stores has long been considered unexciting from a merchandising point of view.
For lighter items, such as pharmaceuticals, various pusher mechanisms have long been employed to urge products forward horizontally. U.S. Pat. No. 7,628,282 discloses a display system incorporating rollers and a pusher for moving heavier products such as cartons of soft drinks. Rather than reliance on pusher mechanisms, some displays incorporate shelving that is sloped to enable a gravity feed such as, for example, is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,855. However, such pusher systems and gravity feed systems do not address or resolve the ergonomic problems noted above, nor do they improve the visual appeal of the stocked items. These systems also do not afford the consumer an easy way to return product should the consumer wish to do so after removing the product from the display.
Thus, a need exists for an improved system for stocking and presenting relatively heavy products such as cartons of soft drinks to the consumer while at the same time enhancing the visual appearance of the stocked product and the involved store aisle. A need also exists for a system that permits easy return of product after removal.